Introduction
PharmaNet is a secure network that has historically connected all pharmacies in British Columbia with the provincial drug information system. Recently, dentists were added to the list of healthcare professionals that approved for acces in order to assess their patient’s medications for interactions and potential hinderances to treatment.
While the process isn’t completely straightforward, we will show you how to set up PharmaNet by yourself or with the help of DentalRx. By connecting your dental clinic to PharmaNet, you can improve patient safety, reduce medication errors, and enhance the quality of care you provide.
Why Do Dentists Need PharmaNet?
PharmaNet provides a wealth of benefits to all healthcare providers, including dentists. Some of the key benefits include:
Improved Patient Safety
PharmaNet provides accurate and up-to-date information about a patient’s medication history, allergies, and drug interactions. By accessing this information, dentists can make more informed decisions about prescribing medications and reduce the risk of adverse drug events.
For example, one of the most common adverse drug events that I see working through DentalRx is unexpected gross bleeding when patients do not disclose that they are taking a blood thinner like apixaban. Risks of gastric ulceration are also subsequently increased when NSAIDs like ibuprofen and ketorolac are prescribed for dental pain relief for patients on apixaban.
Having access to PharmaNet eliminates these dangerous and worrying events and risks, leaving you with peace of mind and healthier patients.
Reduced Medication Errors
PharmaNet allows dentists to verify a patient’s medication dosage and prescription history before dispensing any medications. This helps to reduce the risk of medication errors and ensures that patients receive the correct medications and dosages.
For example, many patients take pain medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen as a prescription for pain. By checking a patient’s medication regimen on PharmaNet, dentists can avoid overdosing their patients and causing toxicity.
Enhanced Quality of Care
PharmaNet provides dentists with access to a patient’s complete medication history, including prescriptions filled at other pharmacies and healthcare providers. *note that at this time there is no documentation for medications that are given in hospital (this is a big gap in care that we hope will be addressed in the near future).
This information can help dentists identify potential drug interactions and make more informed decisions about treatment options. Depending on your level of expertise in pharmacology, you may be able to spot and correct these interactions in your practice, but if you want a clinical pharmacist to help; DentalRx is here for you.
How to Set Up PharmaNet in 5 (not so) Easy Steps
Setting up PharmaNet at your dental clinic can be a bit of a convoluted process, but DentalRx is here to help you. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to set up the service by yourself:
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The first thing you have to do is contact a Software Vendor. There are several to choose from including:
- Excelleris: 1-866-728-4777
- iClinic Inc.: 604-566-9862
- Medinet: medinet.ca
- Plexia Electronic Medical Systems Inc.: 604-269-3733
- CareConnect: careconnect@phsa.ca
My suggestions would be either MediNet or CareConnect. CareConnect is what the government would consider their gold standard as a PharmaNet software vendor. However, as with many government run systems, support can be extremely slow and frustrating.
For that reason at DentalRx I opt to use MediNet as a software vendor. They are a local Vancouver based business that is exceptionally helpful and customer service oriented. Their software is complete and practical, and they will even work with your dental EMR software provider to try and offer solutions for direct integration.
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After contacting a software vendor, you now need to set up your BC Services Card Application on your smart phone or device. This in itself can be a process on its own, and so I will not go too much into detail here, but will provide a brief overview.
- First you need to download the BC Services Card App from either the Google Play Store or App Store on your respective device.
- The BC Services Card App will then take you through a series of prompts in order to complete the first time setup.
- Once this is completed all of the prompts need to be verified by the government which takes approximately 24-48 hours in my experience.
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Now we can finally get to registering for PharmaNet. As the signing authority for your clinic, you will need to collect the following:
- The site’s business licence
- The organization name exactly as it appears on the BC Corporate Registry
- The organization’s mailing address
- The site’s normal operating hours
- Name of PharmaNet software provider
- Name, address, phone number and email of the site’s PharmaNet Administrator (you)
- Learn about the abundant rules and regulations surrounding appropriate use of PharmaNet in order to become a PharmaNet Privacy Officer (DentalRx pharmacists do this for you)
- And a Technical Support Contact
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Finally! You got to the end. All you have to do now is submit your application on the government operated PRIME online application. You can relax now…
But do you remember what I said about government run systems? 95% of the time they can be just a touch slow and possibly just a little bit very frustrating to deal with.
From my experience, it can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks for PRIME to accept and reconcile your application.
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All kidding aside, after PRIME accepts and confirms your application, your site will be assigned a PID (PharmaNet ID), and your software vendor will need to take over on their end to set up billing and access.
If you go with MediNet as a software vendor they make this process seamless and pain-free.
Please note that these instructions may differ depending on your clinic’s specific circumstances. If you want more information on how to set up PharmaNet I would recommend you visit the PRIME website by clicking here.
Conclusion
Setting up PharmaNet at your dental clinic can provide significant benefits to your practice and your patients, but it can be a difficult and tedious process.
If you want to simplify that process, feel free to reach out to us at DentalRx and we will set up PharmaNet for you. But we don’t stop at just setting up PharmaNet: DentalRx offers an integrative pharmacist that will assess all of your patient’s medications for you so that you can ensure a premium standard of care and save time doing so.
If you decided to set up PharmaNet by yourself we will fully support your decision! If you have any questions feel free to email us at admin@dentalrx.ca.
Through interprofessional collaboration, dentists and pharmacists can create better healthcare for all patients.